September 15, 2004

Environmental board running out of money

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

The state Environmental Quality Board is running out of money and may have to stop holding meetings, board members say.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has bailed the environmental board and the state Air Quality Board out of previous budget crises, but DEP officials say they won’t step in this time.

“It’s to the point now where something needs to be decided at a level above mine about how the boards are going to operate,” said DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer.

Earlier this year, lawmakers declined to pass industry-backed legislation to strip the board of its authority to write water pollution rules.

Instead, the Legislature slashed the board’s budget 20 percent, in addition to the cuts that Gov. Bob Wise had already ordered agencies to take.

Ed Snyder, chairman of the environmental board, said the budget cut appears aimed at crippling the board’s rule-making efforts.

Snyder also said it makes no sense for lawmakers to complain that the board does not spend enough time listening to industry complaints, and then not give the board enough money to hold meetings.

“It plays into the hands of those who would rather not deal with a citizen board and would prefer to have rule-making in the hands of lobbyists and those who have agendas on specific pollutants,” said Snyder, an environmental science professor at Shepherd University.

Under state law, the five-member environmental board writes water quality rules and hears appeals of DEP decisions about water and waste regulation.

By contrast, the air quality board only hears appeals. DEP’s Division of Air Quality — not the board — writes state air pollution rules.

When it writes water pollution rules, the environmental board holds all of its discussions in public. Industry lobbyists, citizens and newspaper reporters can sit in on all of the meetings.

When it writes air pollution rules, DEP publishes draft proposals and holds hearings. But most of the discussions take place behind closed doors.

Business and industry lobbyists want to strip the environmental board of its rule-making authority.

Those groups are upset that the board’s conflict-of-interest rules prohibit industry officials from serving on the board as long as the board also hears permit appeals.

In August, the board asked DEP to provide another $55,000 for the 2004-05 financial year, and to supplement the board every year so it would have at least $155,000.

Board members say DEP is not providing the boards with their share of certain state special revenue funds.

Timmermeyer said DEP has already agreed to allow the board to have rent-free office space in the new DEP building in Kanawha City.

Also, the DEP gave the board an additional $30,000 in special revenue money this year, restoring groundwater protection fund money that DEP had taken from the board earlier.

Still, the total environmental board budget is only about $185,000 this year, down from $191,000 last financial year.

From general revenue, lawmakers gave the board only $105,000, down from the $130,000 that Wise had requested.

Without additional money, Snyder said, the board will either have to maintain its staff and stop having meetings in October, or continue having meetings until the money runs out. Snyder said that would likely happen in mid-March. At that point, he said, the board would have to eliminate staff.

“It’s incredibly disturbing to see this happening in a state where water as a resource has true economic potential for the future,” Snyder said. “We are not being the stewards that we should.”